The ex-nurse, formerly Paul Morris, admitted bomb making charges after police raided her home and discovered the largest haul of ammunition and explosives found in the West Midlands in the past decade.

However, the 48-year-old admitted she had no lawful excuse for holding the explosives or the restricted ammunition, and that she’d constructed the IED at home.

Morris, who worked as a nurse on leaving the army and was an ambulance controller at the time of her arrest, admitted five charges under the Explosives Act and a further five firearms offences.

At Wolverhampton Crown Court she was jailed for seven years and the judge described it as an exceptional case without precedent.

Detective Sergeant Craig Newey said afterwards: “Morris had accrued a dangerous arsenal of firearms and explosives over several years. It seems her military obsession continued long after her army career ended.

“Morris is highly trained and used to handling explosives; she had all the component parts to create viable explosive devices and, though there was no evidence she intended to use them in anger, they posed a huge risk and were potentially deadly.

“Counter terrorism colleagues were consulted over the find but there was no evidence of any intent to use these items for terrorist purposes. But there is always a chance these items could have fallen into the hands of people with sinister motives.

“The IED was of particular concern and showed Morris was prepared to experiment and develop her explosives interest.

“It was filled with percussion caps, small metal disks, which would have acted as shrapnel, though Morris claimed they were added simply to increase the device’s bang.”

Expanding ‘hollow-point’ rounds, restricted ammunition only given to the military and authorised police firearms officers, were also uncovered, plus ammunition presses, bullet casings, bullet heads and gun powder.